You will also find this post in other groups related to PLAB exams.
Btw, the whatsapp screenshot attached in a conversation between me and Dr. Samson, and that is his phone number you can double check by whatever means suit you…
Today i am writing about a completely unprofessional organization named Samson Academy, you should avoid it.
This is not critisim, however these are only facts and things happened to myself in the last 2-3 days for the PLAB 2 course currently running started on Saturday 20th July
And i am not writing for people to support my story, as i have already took legal actions, and it will all be sorted through the court by law, the only reason i am writing this is for the doctors who are planning to take this course at one time, they need to know how it runs and which kind of people they are about to deal with, and not to be surprised (as what happened to myself )
In some areas of this article, you will find facts about how the course is run, and also you will find my own personal opinion about few things related to it, you don’t need to take that for granted, you only take the facts, as what works for me could not work for the others and vice versa…
So, basically the registration for the course was via email to the one writted on the website, and i asked about the payment, i was given the options and i opted to pay in cash on the first day of the course
Surprisingly, we were about 60 candidates in one class with no room for legs in between the chairs, no conditioning, as all the classes were full with different courses running on the same time
We started late as his majesty (Samson) was late for his presedintial speech.
After the intro, the sessions are run through previously recordes videos by his majesty in sessions done in the past, and that is because he is too busy to repeat the sessions every time people come to his classes. The videos are played by his tutors who run the scenario first, and answer the questions raised by the candidates either during or after the video play.
And btw, Dr. Samson doesn’t provide any notes for his course materials, nor does he allow any one of the cadidates to watch the videos on their own, so what’s written on the website about the availability of the Ipads and computer devices to be used by the candidates is absolutely wrong, may be that was the case in the past, but not anymore, and in his opinion, this is because people tend to distribute his own effort, which would minimise the number of candidates coming to his classes.
I was disappointed in the way the classes are conducted, and i said okay, just try to see how the mocks are run.So i asked to get one mock early in the course,on the account of me losing the classes of that day while the mock is run. and they accepted that, so i had my mock on day 4 of the course, what was an absolute joke is the feedback, where the admin said to us in the group you will get your feedback by the end of the day at 6 pm, as all the classes are full.
The feedback was the same videos of Dr. Samson of the stations which were in the mock, which are played during the classes, as if there is no other way of getting the station done the right way apart from Dr. Samson’s way.
There was no feedback from the actors or the examiners of what went wrong and what went right by the candidates. And the admin said you will also get a feedback by Dr. Samson about how everyone did in his mock. Samson gets to see how you performed in two stations out of the 18 stations in the mock, as these are the only two stations recorded by video in the mock for him to assess how you did. It could be the only two stations you did well, it could be the only two you did bad, so his feedback is in fact pointless.
Anyways, i decided that thia course is not for me, i went to the admin office, trying to say this in a very professional way, and only speaking of myself. They were very nice and humble to me, they were trying to understand exactly how i feel. I did my best trying to express my feelings and my disappointment. Then they said, okay we totally understand that, we are very sorry you are leaving the course.
At that moment, i asked about the possibility of refund, as it was only day 4, and focus, i only asked about the possibility of that, not the actual refund itself, they said we are sorry we don’t provide refund. I said okay, fine, can you please send me the receipt of my payment , and a confirmation of attendance in the dates i did just for my work. They said okay.
When i went to my Hotel, i checked their website it is stated very clearly below the scedule for PLAB 2 course, if you found any of our classes not satisfactory, we will give you your money back. So i went back to the admin office, and i pointed at this sentence on their website saying “you mentioned to me earlier you don’t provide refund, so what does this mean?” She spoke non-sense as it was her first time to read this on the website. So i walked away saying if i don’t get it the easy way, i will try the hard way, just so you know.
Afterwards, she called me an hour later mentioning that, Dr. Samson wants to speak with you. He was not in the academy, so from a respect point of view i went back to their office, and i was shocked by the way he spoke to me over the phone. First, in a nice way he tried to understand my problem, after that he said okay, we are sorry to hear that you’re leaving, best of luck. I said, thank you, i just have one other query regarding the refund. He shouted on the phone, “you will get no refund, you were speaking rubbish and sh*t to my secreteries, and if you ever show up again in the academy , i will call the police to kick you out” in these exact wards, and hanged up afterwards. I was literally speechless, i texted him on whatsapp afterwards trying to say, btw it was you who asked to speak to me, not the other way around. He replied “idiot” and blocked me after that.
Anyways, it had gone to court level now already, but i came the day after just asking for an update of the my receipt , they refused to give me that, the refused to give me confirmation of attendance, and obviously they said there is no refund for you. So basically the only proof i have infront of the court is that the candidates who were there, they know that i was there as well, and the proof of the payment is that i had one mock, because you never get to do the mocks if you did not pay your fees in full, also the other proof is the CCTV recordings.
I am really disappointed by the way i was treated and disrespected with no reason. However, there is a law in UK. And will see how it goes.
Feel free to PM me for any queries related to this.